Issue 12
This past week Tesla reached over 10,000 employees. To give some context, Tesla had 1417 employees on Dec 31, 2011, 2964 employees on Dec 31, 2012, and 5859 employees on Dec 31, 2013. Tesla is roughly doubling their employee head count every year, including this year.
This past week we also found out more about Tesla's Autopilot system, as Elon shared (see video interview link below) Bosch is the supplier for long-range ultrasonics and radar, the camera assembly chip is from Mobileye, and all the software is from Tesla.
Gigafactory
Tesla arrival highlights skilled labor shortage in Nevada
The USA Today published an article describing the challenges the Nevada economy has in attracting skilled labor. Tesla is play a major role in attracting high-skilled labor to Nevada in the coming years, especially now we know that the Gigafactory will start producing batteries in 2016.
TSLA
This week in TSLA
This past week, TSLA short interest was shown to have gone down by roughly 2m shares, although short interest remains very high at 21m shares (roughly 23% of the float).
Also, Business Insider published an article on why Apple should buy Tesla. Although it generated some discussion in the media, I don't think it's a serious possibility. Elon has acknowledged that he thinks Tesla has the potential to become one of the most valuable companies in the world, and being a savvy investor as he is I don't see him selling Tesla at such an early stage of the company.
Elon Musk
SolarCity's CEO on having Elon Musk as a cousin, investor, chairman of board
Lyndon Rive (SolarCity CEO) shares some of his views of Elon's involvement in SolarCity. The entire article is worth reading, but here are some highlights:
"It is, Rive said, as if he is at the wheel of a car. Musk is in the passenger seat and sometimes instructs him to swerve into a pothole. But why would I do that? Rive asks. 'The pothole will be less harmful than the invisible wall,' Musk says. To which Rive says: What invisible wall?"
"'Without Elon, we may have hit a few walls,' Rive said."
"Rive compared his cousin to Neo, the star character of the movie The Matrix, who can stop bullets because he understands the nature of reality. 'He can see the zeroes and the ones,' Rive said. 'He sees the infrastructure of the game differently."
Autobild.tv Video Interview of Elon Musk
Autobild.tv released a 34 minute video interview of Elon Musk. The interview is unique since they ask Elon a lot of personal and introspective questions on how Elon handles fear, truth and inner drive. Some highlights:
- Tesla has 10,000 employees as of last week (5:05 mark)
- Elon's best idea ever (22:20).
- Elon's regrets (22:55).
- Bosch supplier for long-range ultrasonics and radar. Camera assembly chip from Mobileye. Software all from Tesla (25:50).
- The two ICE cars Elon owns (31:30).
The entire video is definitely worth watching.
Other News
Veterans tour Tesla’s Fremont factory
Great move by Tesla. "Tesla Motors, which has been on a mission to hire America’s veterans, hosted more than 300 veterans and their families at the Fremont factory Tuesday, giving the visitors a rare tour of the facility."
Tesla receives self-driving car permit in California
"In September, California officials started requiring companies testing autonomous vehicles on public roads to get permits." Tesla Motors, along with Nissan, Delphi Automotive, and Bosch, received permits to test autonomous vehicles on public roads.
China, U.S. agree to limit greenhouse gases - The Washington Post
"Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Obama struck a deal Wednesday to limit greenhouse gases... China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, pledged in the far-reaching agreement to cap its rapidly growing carbon emissions by 2030, or earlier if possible. It also set a daunting goal of increasing the share of non-fossil fuels to 20 percent of the country’s energy mix by 2030. Obama announced a target to cut U.S. emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, the first time the president has set a goal beyond the existing 17 percent target by 2020."
Last but not least
Elon Musk was interviewed at ONS 2014, an oil and gas energy summit. Check out the full video interview.